Mokuba, Thy Name is Edina?
by DarkShadowFlame
Summary: “What goes on in the mind of a girl?” : When not even Seto can answer that mystery, Mokuba determines to find out for himself. [SetoAnzu overtones]


Mokuba, Thy Name Is… Edina?

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_"What goes on in the mind of a girl?" : When not even Seto can answer that mystery, Mokuba determines to find out for himself. (SetoAnzu overtones)_

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(-)

-

Whenever Mokuba asked his nii-sama a question, he was used to a prompt response. Like the time he'd asked how far it was to the moon: 384,400 kilometers.

But this time, as he perched on the edge of the couch in Seto's office, his older brother stopped typing and swiveled around in his chair. " 'How do girls think?' " he repeated. "How should I know what goes on in Mazaki's head?"

Mokuba blinked, wondering why Seto thought he was referring to Anzu. "Not her specifically," he clarified. "Just girls in general."

Seto let out a short laugh and turned back to the computer. "Whenever you find out, little brother, be sure to let me know." He absently reached over and ruffled Mokuba's hair, even while typing furiously with the other hand.

Mokuba stared up at Seto's arm, slightly cross-eyed. "You mean you don't know? But you know _everything_!"

"Mokuba, _no one_ knows how girls work. No sane man even wants to know."

"But I want to-" Mokuba started to protest, but stopped short. Seto was laughing quietly. "Come on, big brother!"

"Why the sudden curiosity?" Seto inquired, clicking open files rapidly until he found what he was looking for.

"Rebecca's _weird_," Mokuba said with a pout.

"Ah, yes. Your new best friend. Mokuba, I hate to break it to you, but Hopkins would be weird even if she weren't a girl."

"But if she weren't a girl, she wouldn't be putting that gunk on her lips and giggling whenever we get too close to Yuugi-tachi!" Mokuba complained.

Seto paused in his typing. "Just trust me, Mokuba. The mystery of the female species is one better left alone."

Mokuba heaved a sigh and fell back on the couch, pulling a black pillow under his head. "I guess I'll never have to deal with them, so it doesn't matter."

Seto looked over, a twinkle in his eye. "I wouldn't be so quick to say that if I were you. Most guys do have to deal with a girl later on, you know. You're just lucky you don't have to live with one now."

"Moms are different," Mokuba spoke with his eyes closed.

"I wasn't talking about mothers," Seto responded, letting his hands fall to his lap.

"Then… what were you…" Mokuba bolted upright, his wild hair flying everywhere. "A _girlfriend_? That's so gross!"

Seto threw back his head and chortled. "Someday, I'm going to remind you that you said that."

"I don't want a girlfriend." Mokuba scrunched his face up. "_Some_ girls are okay to have as friends, but not to date."

"None of them?" Seto teased gently.

"Well…" Mokuba considered, then his face brightened. "If I were your age, I might marry Anzu. She's nice."

"Mazaki?" Seto spluttered, his face turning red.

"I know you don't like her, Seto," Mokuba said, standing up on the couch and bouncing lightly. "But I do! If you ever hit your head on something and decide to get a girlfriend, get one as nice as her, okay?"

It wasn't often that anyone got to see Kaiba Seto speechless. Mokuba grinned and jumped higher on the cushions. "Just kidding, nii-sama! Caaatch meeeee!"

He leapt into the air, trusting in Seto to regain motor- or at least limbic- functions again and catch him. He did.

"Gotta go, nii-sama!" Mokuba grinned. "School starts in half an hour!"

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

"That's not the kind of question I can just _answer_," Rebecca said airily, polishing an apple with her sweater sleeve.

"But why not?" Mokuba asked, pouting. "If you asked me a question, I'd tell- aaaah!"

"What?" Rebecca asked, scowling. She glanced down at her hands, then hastily thrust them inside her sleeves.

"What was that?" Mokuba demanded.

"Nothing!"

"It didn't look like nothing! You've joined the dark side, haven't you?"

"Mokuba, it's just nail polish. Get a grip." She reluctantly pulled her hands out from her sleeves and grabbed the apple again.

Mokuba stared at the gleaming red polish. "I can't believe it. You've betrayed me."

"I have not!" Rebecca said, hitting him on the forehead with the apple before viciously biting into it. "I just wanted to look nice, that's all."

"You look like Seto's car."

"His _car_?"

"Yeah. Shiny and red."

She hit him again, this time without the apple.

"Oooh, Rebe-ecca!" 

The two kids turned in unison to see Fyuarmi Taika standing behind their lunch table, beaming down at them. "Rebe-ecca?" Mokuba whispered, and she dug her elbow into his stomach. "Oof!"

"Hello, Taika," Rebecca chirped cheerfully. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm splendid," Taika beamed. Mokuba made a quiet gagging noise. "_Splendid?"_

"I just wanted to invite you to my sleepover party!" Taika said excitedly, handing Rebecca a pink envelope. "Seven or eight of my dearest friends are coming to spend the night on Saturday! Will you be there?"

"Of course I will!" Rebecca exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. "Oh, thank you!"

"I'll see you then," Taika cooed. "Bye, Mokuba."

"Good-bye, Taika," Mokuba said, forcing himself to sound cordial. The second she was out of earshot, he turned to Rebecca.

"What's wrong with _her?_"

"Nothing's wrong with her," Rebecca snapped. "Don't be rude."

"But who _talks_ like that anymore?" Rebecca didn't say anything. "You're going to her slumber party? Oh, how _splendid_! I hope you have a _grand_ time!"

"Okay, okay," Rebecca said, suddenly breaking into stifled giggles. "So she's a little…" she twirled her finger in front of her ear. "Loopy. I'm sure the rest of the girls are nice."

"A sleepover…" Mokuba mumbled as Rebecca turned back to her lunch. "Can I come?"

"Of course not!" she said through a mouthful of apple. "Girls-only!"

"But this would be the perfect time to figure out how girls work," Mokuba pointed out.

With difficulty, Rebecca swallowed. "Don't say that. It sounds like girls are machines when you put it that way."

"For all I know, they could be!" Mokuba exclaimed, waving his hands.

She scowled at him. "Whatever. You're not coming to the party! Read my lips, Kaiba: Girls. Only."

They stared at each other, seeing an idea reflected in the other's eyes.

"Girls only, huh?" Mokuba asked slowly.

"Now… just how bad do you want to come to this party?"

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

"Where's Seto?" Mokuba wondered out loud as he prowled through his brother's office. Maybe it was just as good he wasn't around. He wasn't sure how he could explain this to him. He and Rebecca still needed an excuse for him to spend Saturday night away.

He yanked open a file cabinet and searched quickly through the drawer. It wasn't in there, but he found the software he was looking for stuck in a folder in the next one. He popped the disk into the main computer and waited impatiently for it to upload.

When the designs finally appeared on the screen, he headed right for the character list. He was leafing through Seto's original plans for KaibaCorp's virtual technology. He searched through the file 'Characters, Royal Family' until he found what he needed. Whistling cheerfully, he printed out a few pages showing the character in profile as well as a detailed summary of the outfit. Then he took out the disk, put everything back, gathered up his papers, and headed out the door.

He met Seto on the stairs. "Nii-sama!" he called cheerfully, discreetly folding the papers and stuffing them under his arm. "Where were you?"

"Hmm?" Seto asked, brushing his cheek with his hand. "Oh. It was such a nice day, I dumped my stuff in the car and decided to walk home."

Mokuba's eyes widened the size of saucers. Kaiba Seto dismissed his chauffeur and _walked_ home? On his feet? Without there being any chance of gaining powerful dueling cards or crushing opponents? There had to be an ulterior motive here.

But while he stood gaping on the stairs, Seto brushed by him, absently patted him on the head, and headed into his office.

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

"Pretty," Rebecca said, head bent over the papers he'd brought to her. "How'd you do this?"

"Oh, Seto drew that up a long time ago," Mokuba said, sticking his head out of her cupboard door. "You've got like ten kinds of cookies in here!"

Her eyes slowly swiveled to him. "Your older brother drew these up a long time ago?" Noticing Mokuba stuff a few cookies in his mouth, she rolled her eyes. "Help yourself, by all means."

"It's not like it was supposed to be some kind of sick joke!" Mokuba defended. "It was for some virtual software program he designed! He based that character off me!"

Her gaze traveled from the paper to him. He shoved another cookie in his mouth and scowled at her. "Go ahead, make all the jokes you want. It's not like Jounouchi didn't already make them."

Rebecca snickered a little, then bounced up. "All right, since we know what we want, let's hit the mall already! Gimme a second to brush my hair and I'll-"

"No hair brushing," Mokuba grumbled, grabbing her wrist and yanking her from the room.

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

"This is sickening," Mokuba said for the thousandth time.

"This was _your_ idea," Rebecca said impatiently, snatching up a perfume bottle and spraying him in the face. He sneezed and backpedaled. "You can just think of it as practice before tonight."

"What'd you do that for?" he asked crossly, trying to wipe the scent off his nose. "Ew, it smells like flowers!"

"You can't tell me you don't like flowers," Rebecca scowled, smelling the tip of the bottle. "Everyone likes flowers. Ugh- I mean, it's not _that_ bad." She looked up sheepishly. Mokuba was laughing at her.

"You know, sometimes I wonder why you're my friend," he said conversationally. "Especially when you go all girly on me." She socked him in the arm, and he smirked- much like his older brother. "And then you go do something like that."

"I'm picking you out something with lots of frills… _Edina_," she snarled, yanking on his sleeve and dragging him deep into the world of female dresses and pantyhose.

"Oh no, I can't look," Mokuba moaned, shutting his eyes.

"Good," she said wickedly, shoving something into his arms. "That makes things sooo much easier."

He tentatively cracked open an eye. The dress was pink and covered in little bows. He promptly dropped it, as if it were made of hot coals. "No way!"

Rebecca was deep in a rack of clothing. "Here, try this one on," she said, tossing it over her shoulder.

"It's _purple_!" Mokuba said, horrified.

"I've seen Seto wear purple," she said, poking her head out to scowl at him. While he was thinking that one over, she piled three more dresses on top of his arms.

"Stoooop!" he finally yelled. When she paused, startled, he grabbed ahold of the opportunity and dumped all the dresses on her head. While she spluttered, trying to pull them off, he bolted in the other direction, frantically sifting through clothes as he went. "No… no… ew… no… no… a-ha!"

"Kaiba Mokuba, you are so dead," Rebecca said, catching up with him.

"Ta-daa!" he said triumphantly, spinning around and holding up the dress.

She stared at it. "Lace… bows… pink… and gems. I can't believe it. You were complaining about the _other_ dresses?"

Okay, so she had a point. Mokuba pouted and said sulkily, "It's not so bad. I've worn one just like it before, so I could do it again. Just for one night."

For some reason, Rebecca was eyeing him strangely. "You've worn a dress like that before?"

"I told you," Mokuba said, fighting against the urge to blush. "Seto based Edina off me."

"So, what, did you model a dress for him?" Rebecca snickered.

"Not funny!" Mokuba flapped the dress at her, whacking her in the face. "See, he created Edina for a virtual computer game. Then when I played the game, I ended up having to switch places with her, to prevent her from being kidnapped and letting me find nii-sama!" He paused, looking at her confused face. "Mouto Yuugi was there too. He was dressed up in a hero's outfit or whatever. He had a cape."

"He _did_?" Rebecca squealed, before she could stop herself. Mokuba smirked.

"Shut up," she said, taking a swipe at his head. He ducked. "Okay, so you like the dress. You wanna try it on? Make sure it fits?"

"Yeah," Mokuba said, swinging it over his shoulder. "Where are the dressing rooms?"

She pointed. "You're just lucky they're private," she smirked. "If there were any attendants, you'd be dead. How often does a boy walk in there carrying a really, really girly dress?" Mokuba started to protest, but she snatched the papers from him. "She's wearing jewelry in this! I'll go look for that while you try it on! When you hear me knocking on the door, open up and let me in, k?"

"All right," Mokuba said, but she was already gone. He shrugged, and dashed for the fitting room before anyone saw him. Heart hammering slightly, he stripped off his casual jeans and vest, and yanked the dress over his head.

"Yaah!"

It was too small around the neck and wouldn't go over his head. He danced blindly around the room, trying to untangle himself. "Help!" he yelped, although praying that no one would come by. "Gah!" When he finally managed to yank the dress off his head, his hair caught in something. "Great!"

He examined the hair and managed to pull the strand out. It had been stuck in the zipper.

"Zipper. Riiight…"

This time, when he unzipped the dress and climbed in, things went a lot more smoothly. The dress covered most of his body, so hopefully no one would realize it wasn't a girl under there. And he hated to admit it, but his hair could pass for a female's, and his face was still young enough to be either gender. He pretended to bat his eyes in front of the mirror, as he'd seen Taika do on several occasions. At least Rebecca didn't do that- one point in her favor. It almost made up for the nail polish.

"All right, Kaiba Mokuba, open up!"

He slid the door open barely enough for her to slide in. "Thanks a lot," she scowled.

"I don't want anyone to see me," Mokuba explained, nervously sliding a hand down his dress front.

Rebecca gawked at him. "Well, I don't see why not," she said. "You look just like a girl."

"You mean stupid?" he muttered. Suddenly, something was violently shoved into his hair. "Hey! Ow!"

"Watch it," she threatened, holding a pair of clip-on earrings up. "Or I'll go get real ones, and put these in the hard way."

He gingerly reached up and patted the thing she had thrust into his hair. Moving in front of the mirror, he found a small crown just like Edina had worn.

"You know, Edina was supposed to be a princess. You don't think it'd be dumb for me- even as a girl- to wear royal jewelry to a sleepover party?"

Rebecca snorted. "Are you kidding? Taika will think they're, 'oh-so simply dee-liiightful'!"

Mokuba raised his eyebrows at her sappy imitation of Taika. "I thought you were supposed to be friends?"

Rebecca shrugged, blushing a little.

"You don't really like her, do you?" Mokuba accused.

"Of course I do!- I mean, she's nice. And some of the other girls are _really_ nice. But… I don't know. It's just not really my thing. All they ever talk about is makeup, or clothes, or boys…"

"You haven't been acting much different lately," Mokuba grumbled, letting her clip one of the purple dangling earrings on him.

"I know." She shrugged. "I just kind of want to fit in sometimes. You know? Oh, well. No matter how much I hang around them, I'll still be me."

"And thank goodness for that," Mokuba grinned. "Because if you ever became like them… I think my head would explode."

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

_Ding-dong_!

Mokuba fidgeted nervously. He'd gotten permission from Seto to spend the night at 'Rebecca's,' but his brother had seemed rather reluctant. It was suddenly occurring to him how mad his nii-sama would be if he found out that Mokuba lied (or at least stretched the truth)- and not only that, but instead of staying with one female friend, he was crashing an all-girls slumber party.

"Rebecca!" Taika beamed. "And Rebecca's cousin Edina!" Behind Taika, half a dozen girls' faces peeked eagerly.

"Thanks for inviting me, Taika," Rebecca said, stepping into the house and dropping her duffle bag. "And thanks for letting my cousin come too."

"No problem," Taika said earnestly. "It's always fun having more people! We can play lots of good games!" Mokuba involuntarily winced as he stepped through the threshold into the jaws of DOOM… that is, into Taika's house and greeted the six other girls (Mariya, Mitsue, Chikaze, Sasara, Kihomi, Reiko). "There's just one more girl coming," Taika said eagerly. "My mom will show her the way upstairs. Let's go now and set up for tonight!"

The girls squealed and charged up the stairs, shoving each other out of the way in order to get up first. Mokuba followed last, mouth open. The girls were acting _normal_! Like the guys! Why didn't they act this way in school?

More wonders awaited him once they entered Taika's room. True, she had nail polish scattered around the floor, and her closet was thrown open to reveal rows of dresses; but she also had potato chips lying in the middle of the room! And, unbelievably, that was the first thing all the girls dove into, laughing hysterically. Chikaze grabbed a soda, took a long gulp, and let out a resounding belch. "Eewwww!" everyone else squealed, before breaking out into hysterical laughter again.

"Hey, Taika," a brown-haired teenage girl poked her head in the room. "Your friend Rikanais here."

"That's my older sister, Sakura," Taika explained, to those who didn't know. "She has a friend over too, so she doesn't get bored tonight."

"Hello, everyone," a cheerful voice rang out. Mokuba looked up to see a petite, pale redhead standing in the doorway, behind Rikanais shyly edging in the room. Something seemed to get stuck in his throat, and he tried to sidle behind Rebecca. Apparently, Kawai Shizuka was Sakura's friend. Just greeeat. If she recognized him, his life was over.

"Hi, Shizuka!" Taika chirped, apparently recognizing her sister's buddy. "You and Sakura wanna hang out with us?"

Sakura hedged a bit, and glanced at Shizuka. Shizuka shrugged and smiled. "I don't see why not."

"Okay," Sakura finally said. "The pizza will be here soon anyway."

Pizza? Mokuba's ears perked up. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

The girls settled themselves into a circle. Mokuba noted that although Shizuka and Sakura were in comfortable-looking flannel pajamas, the other girls were dressed much like he was. Rebecca told him that Taika had asked the girls to dress up so they could compare outfits. She was easily the most casual of the bunch, in a jean skirt and striped sweater. The others were wearing dresses- Taika's had more frills and bows than even his Edina dress.

There was idle chatter that he didn't participate in, mainly trying to avoid looking at Shizuka. She wouldn't recognize him, would she? They didn't hang out _that _much. She didn't even go to the same school system.

When the pizza arrived, the girls dove in with an eagerness that startled Mokuba. It was faintly reminiscent of what the guys did at lunch- when the girls stood in the background and rolled their eyes! He shot a glance at Rebecca, who at least was acting the way he was used to seeing her when they hung out after school together.

What surprised him even more was when Rikana glanced down and cried out that she had a spot on her dress. He rolled his eyes in exasperation: what did she expect, eating like that?

"Guess who called me yesterday," Chikaze suddenly said, leaning forward eagerly. She had a small blot of sauce on her cheek.

"Who?" eager voices chorused at once.

Chikaze allowed herself a smugly satisfied smile. "Otohiko Hideo."

What was so great about Hideo?, Mokuba wondered as all the girls save Rebecca, Shizuka, and Sakura gasped loudly. He was just a nice guy in their class. Although, he did wonder why Hideo had called Chikaze. Maybe he'd lost his mind.

In response to the 'About _what_'s' being thrown her way, Chikaze sighed. "He _said_ it was for homework… but come on, would he have stayed on the phone with me for fifteen whole minutes before asking for the assignment if he didn't… you know…"

No, Mokuba didn't know, but everyone else apparently did. He wrinkled his nose faintly.

"Well, you might like Otohika Hideo," Mariya announced, "But I've got my eye on someone else. Daichi Nobuto."

Once again, the air was filled with dreamy sighs and silent gagging (Mokuba, of course).

"Who do _you_ like, Rebecca?" someone asked.

Her face turned pink and she made a cutting gesture at Mokuba, hoping no one else would notice. "I guess… I guess I think Mouto Yuugi's kinda nice," she said softly. Mokuba made a choking noise, and she discreetly pinched him.

"The _King_ of _Games_?" Chikaze asked incredulously. "I mean, he's gorgeous and all, but I think he's out of the league of pretty much anyone in this room."

"That's not true," Rebecca said defensively. "We're friends."

Random gasps resounded. Mokuba fought back a groan. He was friends with Yuugi too, but he didn't flip out and start drooling.

"You're friends with Mouto Yuugi?" Sasara squealed. "Really friends?"

"Yeah," Rebecca responded defiantly. "We dueled once."

"He beat you, right?" Taika asked, eyes wide.

Rebecca hesitated a fraction of a second. "Actually… he let me win."

This time the squeals were ear-splitting. _'Get me OUT of here_!'

"He let you win? That's so romantic!" Sasara said breathlessly.

"And he gave me a card," Rebecca admitted, blushing but obviously loving the attention.

"Aaaaaah!"

Mokuba echoed the girls' delighted squeals in his head, but with more of a traumatic this-is-horrible feel to them.

"I always thought he liked that girl Anzu," Reiko said thoughtfully.

"No, he and Anzu are just friends," Shizuka spoke up. Immediately, she had everyone's attention.

"I forgot you spent so much time with them!" Chikaze said excitedly. "Wow, that's so cool!"

"You know who is _really_ cute?" Kihomi asked slyly. "Kaiba Seto." The room filled with cries of 'Oh, I _KNOW_!', and Mokuba bolted upright. "You must have seen him too Shizuka. Is he really that good-looking in person?"

"Better," Shizuka winked. Mokuba's eyes widened in disbelief. The girls all clutched themselves and giggled.

"Do you like him?" Reiko asked.

"No, actually- he likes Anzu."

Whoa. That was the first he'd heard of _that_. "He likes Anzu?" Mokuba asked, barely remembering to disguise his voice. "How do you know?"

"Anzu told me," Shizuka responded in her soft voice. "As to how Anzu knows, well… girls always do."

"Yeah," several girls murmured.

"Wow, Anzu's lucky," Sakura joked. "Being best friends with Mouto Yuugi _and_ having a hot specimen like Kaiba Seto at her fingertips? Didn't you say they walked home together, Shizuka?"

"Yes, I talked to Anzu before I came here. She said that Kaiba actually gave up riding in that fancy limousine to walk her home- the _long_ way, through the park. And he even carried her bookbag, since he left his stuff behind."

"Oooooh," everyone sighed at once, as if they had planned it. Everyone except Mokuba, that is. He was too busy remembering that afternoon in horror. When Seto had come in, he'd been caressing his cheek, as if reminiscing about something. He didn't… he wouldn't… the traitor!

To be honest, if it were anyone, Mokuba was glad it was Anzu his brother seemed to have fallen for. She wasn't creepy or ugly or mean or scary, and he would bet that if she went out with Seto, it'd be because she genuinely liked him. But he was a little hurt that Seto hadn't told him about this! It was a big deal, after all- the first female Seto had looked at twice! (Not that he looked at any people, period, if they didn't suit his mood, but that was beside the point.)

But then again- his brother was, by nature, a very private person. He cared about Mokuba more than anyone else in the world. When Seto was ready to talk about something that must have been very new for him, he would undoubtedly turn to his younger sibling first.

While congratulating himself on being so understanding, he didn't notice that everyone was now looking at him expectantly. "Well, Edina?" Chikaze asked, smiling. "Who do you like?"

"I know you don't go to our school, so we might not know him," Taika added, "But Rebecca said you went to Haidi Middle School, and that's where Shizuka goes too! So she can tell us if he's cute!"

Shizuka went to Haidi? Mokuba gulped. She was looking at him now, wearing that same soft smile but with a hint of confusion in her eyes.

"Now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever noticed you there before," she said thoughtfully. She was silent a second, surveying him up and down, but then she shrugged and shook her head. "Never mind."

"So who do you like?" Mitsue asked eagerly. "What's his name?"

"Uh, uh, uh…" His heart was pounding. He couldn't make up a name, because Shizuka would notice! Then again, she hadn't seemed to realize that there was no Edina in her school, but he didn't want to risk that.

If he said Yuugi, Rebecca would kill him. And there was no way he would say he liked Seto! That was just plain gross!

Picturing the rest of their group, he blurted the first name that came to his mind. "Katsuya Jonouchi!" Two seconds later, he nearly choked on his own tongue as the room dissolved into squeals and giggles.

"He's sooooo cute," Kihomi declared boldly.

"I know," Taika giggled.

Shizuka was staring at Mokuba, looking vaguely triumphant, like something had just clicked in her mind. His face flared bright red, and he ducked his head down. Shizuka blinked twice, then started smiling.

"He doesn't go to Haidi," Chikaze realized slowly. "Did you see him on television or something?"

Mokuba started to open his mouth, but Shizuka beat him to it. "Occasionally Jounouchi picks me up after school so we can go out for ice cream, or just spend time together. He'll hang out in front of the building for a while. That's where you met him, isn't it, Edina?"

"Okay," Mokuba said blankly, wondering where this gift had come from. Better to snatch the opportunity, though.

"Are you serious?" Sasara asked, hugging herself. "Oh-my-gosh, you are _so_ lucky! Shizuka, could you introduce _me_ to your brother sometime?"

"Oh, and me!" Taika shrieked.

"Can you really introduce us to Jounouchi?" Reiko asked excitedly, her eyes widening.

"That would be _so awesome_," Rikanais chimed in. "He's gorgeous! That long, blonde hair…"

"That he only washes like twice a month," Shizuka muttered, causing Sakura to giggle.

"Those dreamy cocoa eyes!" Taika squealed.

"That are only ever glued to a Duel Monsters card," Sakura added, grinning at Rebecca and Mokuba. The sides of Mokuba's mouth twitched.

"And his giant muscles!" Kihomi declared, blushing.

"That he gets from running in circles around Seto's virtual world," Mokuba said, joining in the joke. He felt warm inside: he and Rebecca and Shizuka and Sakura were sharing a private laugh. Rebecca and Shizuka snorted in amusement, but something seemed to have striken Sakura as odd.

"Edina, how'd you know about the-"

"Okay, enough gossiping about how 'hunky' my brother is!" Shizuka said loudly, catching everyone's attention. She winked. "It's kind of sickening, hearing all this about Jounouchi."

Everyone broke up laughing again. Mokuba let out a sigh of relief. He'd slipped there: as Rebecca's random cousin, he shouldn't have known about the virtual world. But it didn't matter, because apparently Shizuka hadn't noticed.

"Okay," Taika said, trying to get things under control. "I have an idea! Let's paint each other's fingers and toes!" She beamed, and held up a bottle of purple nail polish.

As everyone dived for the bottles that were lying around the room, Mokuba gulped and tugged on Rebecca's sleeve. "I don't think I want to know any more about girls," he whispered. "Let's leave."

She turned to him with a wicked smile. "Oh no you don't, Kaiba Edina Mokuba," she whispered evilly. "Not when this is just getting good."

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

Mokuba lay on his back, feeling as if his hands and feet had been violated. They were covered in various shades of nail polish, considering he'd had about four different girls working on them. Rebecca had delightedly painted his left fingers in neon stripes of pink and green; Mitsue had made the fingers on his right hand blue; Kihomi, Mariya, and Rikanais had collaborated to paint his feet with pink polish and gold sparkles, although two toes had somehow ended up black.

He groaned and rolled over.

"Can't sleep, Edina?" Shizuka's voice asked softly from the blackness to his left.

Hovering above her head was a digital alarm clock. The glowing green numbers read 2:37. Everyone else was sound asleep, tucked into sleeping bags on Taika's bedroom floor. Shizuka and Sakura had also opted to stay the night in there, deciding that it was more fun even if these were just Sakura's little sister's friends.

"No…" he responded softly. "Hey- Shizuka?"

He rolled over and propped himself up on his elbows, still wearing the dress. He'd dodged out of trying on anyone else's clothes, and ended up not changing at all. It was probably a good thing; other pajamas might have made him seem less girly.

"Yes?"

He then asked the question that had been bothering him all evening: "Does Anzu like Seto too?"

In the dark, he thought he could feel her smiling. "Yeah. She does."

"Oh." He laid back down and looked at the ceiling- or at least, where the ceiling should be. " 'Night, Shizuka."

" 'Night, Mokuba."

He drifted off to sleep before her words really registered in his mind.

(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)

"Nii-sama!"

Mokuba bounced into his house, dropping the duffle bag by the door. His hands and feet only showed a few flecks of nail polish now, along the edges. Rebecca had dumped a whole bottle of smelly rubbing alcohol on the polish to get it off.

"Hello, Mokuba," his older brother's voice called from the kitchen. "Did you have fun at Rebecca's?"

"Wha? Oh, yeah. I did." He grinned sheepishly and headed into the kitchen, where Seto was calmly eating an English muffin and drinking orange juice. "Late breakfast, nii-sama."

"I slept in," Seto admitted after a moment.

"You- what?" Mokuba, who had started to open the refrigerator, whirled around in shock. "You actually slept in?"

"Well…"

"Oh, wait." He frowned slightly. "It's because you stayed up all night working on some project, didn't you?"

"Well- you weren't home," Seto protested, trying to justify himself. "And I finished the project."

"So you don't have to work today?" he asked excitedly, slamming the fridge shut.

"I… suppose not…"

"Great! Let's go to the park!"

He chuckled to himself, watching Seto's mouth work open and closed. Sundays, Yuugi-tachi were usually found in the park, playing Frisbee or horsing around or dueling. And if Jounouchi and Yuugi were dueling, and Honda was watching them, Anzu just might be bored and in need of some distractions.

He smiled again. "Seto, you know how I asked you about girls? How they work?"

"Ye-es," Seto said, reeling from the abrupt conversation change.

"I don't think I want to know anymore. You, on the other hand, nii-sama, might want to study up on them."

Seto raised an eyebrow, but Mokuba just laughed.

-

(-)

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Notes: Just some notes on the OOCness that might have been in here. I realize that I fluffed every character up a bit. I wanted this to be a light-hearted fic, so I didn't worry _too_ much about every detail, but I think I did a fair job anyway. Remember that we're looking at everything through Mokuba's, a generally fluffy child, point of view.

I'd like it if you reviewed, especially if you have any helpful comments. I always look for constructive criticism. Thanks and ciao!


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